Monday, May 31, 2010

I originally had a more elaborate post planned for today, but in observance of Memorial Day, I thought it best maybe just to feature a song in tribute instead. I hope you enjoy Ernest Tubb's "Soldier's Last Letter" from January 1944.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Not sure yesterday's post resonated all that well, but I've decided to make today's post a follow up regardless. Today we have demo versions of three of the songs that were featured yesterday. It's an interesting trio as you'll hear three pretty different kinds of production here. "Crazy" is a fully arranged recording. As pointed out yesterday, the 4-hour session that Owen Bradley produced on Patsy Cline yielded just that one song. It seems they knew it was something special given that they spent a full session on it. Willie's somewhat sparse, but more fully realized demo might indicate that he (or his publishers) knew it was something special too. The song was reputedly written for Billy Walker, but he passed on it. It would be interesting to hear a Billy Walker version, but history might best have been served by his turning it down. "Three Days" is just Willie on guitar, and the demo for "Undo The Right" adds some nice, bluesy pedal steel. As far as I know, these recordings are all from 1961. One source shows "Three Days" as 1962, but given that his Liberty version was recorded at the September 1961 date, it seems unlikely he would have done a simple guitar demo after the fact. As I mentioned yesterday, this period of Willie Nelson is my favorite. I hope you all enjoy this further exploration into early Willie.

Friday, May 28, 2010

After reading Don's comment where he mentioned the Greenbriar Boys and Jimmy Martin versions of today's Charlie Monroe song, I thought it might be nice to add them as a little bonus post for today. So while I was at it, I decided to throw in a classic Country Gentleman version and another Jimmy Martin version, this time with Ralph Stanley.

Today's post is a reflection of how I was feeling last night after all the technical difficulties of yesterday. But I'm back, so I guess I do know when.

But let's not be dismissive about this wonderful song! I was listening to this last night and really loving it (and blowing off a post for today after yesterday's frustrations) when it occurred to me how fitting it was for today's post. Not bad as a Memorial Day post either.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

The argument over what is the true beginning of rock and roll will forever be debated. It largely depends on what you consider "rock and roll." The case of bluegrass is a little easier. While it's origins and contributers are cause for some minor quibbling among aficionados, it's pretty safe to safe that the musical approach that became known as "bluegrass" began with Bill Monroe's classic Blue Grass Boys line up that included Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and Chubby Wise. Their influence was enormous. As has been stated by Neil Rosenberg and others, "bluegrass" as a genre (though yet to be known as that for some time) really began when that original musical approach began to be emulated by others, with the Stanley Brothers recording of Monroe's "Molly And Tenbrooks" as the first significant example. Around the same time that the Stanleys made that record, Flatt & Scruggs left Monroe's band to form their own.

And that brings us to today's post. By the fall of 1949, Flatt & Scruggs had been on their own for more than a year-and-a-half and with their own radio show and records on the Mercury label. They were becoming quite successful and significant rivals to Monroe. The Stanley Brothers were gaining in popularity and about to record their second session for Columbia. This was also a point of contention for Monroe as he was also still recording for Columbia and was less than pleased they had signed the Stanleys,who Monroe at the time considered to be stealing from him. Monroe hadn't recorded since his last session with Flatt & Scruggs almost exactly two years previous on October 28, 1947. This would be Monroe's last session with Columbia, as he was to leave for a lifelong deal with Decca shortly after largely because of the signing of the Stanley Brothers. It's also his only session with singer/guitarist Mac Wiseman, who had previously been part of the initial Flatt & Scruggs session in the fall of 1948.

So, if the Flatt & Scruggs-era Blue Grass Boys are the beginning of the style, and the Stanley Brothers Rich-R-Tone recording of "Molly And Tenbrooks" is the beginning of bluegrass as a genre, then certainly these recordings in the fall of 1949 are the dawn of bluegrass emerging by the three original major forces after the settling of the dust of the bluegrass big bang.

Special thanks go to Harlan Taylor for the germ of this idea. Be sure to look for titles in his Warped Records series by each of these artists. Available at all VMIMC blogs in the greater music city area.

Here are two 3-song sessions from Lefty that are exactly 10 years to the day apart. I guess you couldn't say either of these are exactly "classic" Lefty sessions, but the man never did anything not worth listening to. So while these aren't hits, they're still mostly enjoyable tunes, and we even get one song from the legendary Harlan Howard in "Watermelon Time In Georgia." It's an interesting comparison to hear the difference not only in Lefty in 10 years passage, but in country music in general. The '60s were an incredible period of change in all of music, but here you can hear the progression of the Nashville Sound over a full decade. The 1960 session is a snapshot of what was happening in country music in the wake of the rock and roll boom. These aren't the kinds of songs that we know Lefty for, but this kind of material was not uncommon for many artists of this era. By the 1970 session, country has gotten a little more comfortable with itself again, although the strings and vocal choruses are a far cry from the hits that made Lefty a star in the '50s.